The radiocarbon chronology on the Norfolk Island archaeological sites

Abstract

Radiocarbon determinations were obtained for archaeological sites at Cemetery Bay and Emily Bay, Norfolk Island. Sample materials were rat bone gelatin, marine shell and wood charcoal. Ages on bone gelatin are contradictory and suggest a laboratory problem, while ages on marine shell appear to include an old-carbon offset of 500–600 years: dates on these samples are consistent with those on charcoal when appropriate corrections are made. Ages on charcoal were divided according to the expected inbuilt age of the sample taxa. The samples with lowest inbuilt age were subjected to Bayesian analysis which concluded that the main archaeological site, at Emily Bay, had been occupied from the early thirteenth to the early fifteenth centuries A.D. The Norfolk Island settlement occurs within the same age range as other Polynesian settlements of southern islands.